SUNDAY HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHI 08 hindustantimes SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 YEARS ON Bombay days 1869 - 2019 1891: After returning from London as a trained barrister, MK Gandhi attended the Bombay High Court every day, walking 45 N O T E S FROM THE FIELD minutes to and from his home in MAP NOT TRACES Girgaum. In court, he couldn’t TO SCALE follow the cases and would OF THE doze off, he wrote in his autobiography, ‘The Story of My Gandhi’s Bombay MAHATMA Experiments with Truth’ days in Mumbai Jan 9, 1915: MK Gandhi and Kasturba reached Mumbai (then Bombay) on S.S. Arabia. He met n Clockwise from Quit India Gopalkrishna Gokhale, his August 8, 1942: above: A mentor. In the days that movement was launched at demonstrator in followed, he attended a party at Gowalia Tank. A day after the All Mumbai stands the Petit family house, as well as India Congress Committee up to the police a meeting organised by the passed the Quit India resolution, during the 1942 Gurjar Sabha where Mohammed Gandhi along with Mahadev Quit India Ali Jinnah made the main speech Desai, Sarojini Naidu and Mira movement; behn were arrested from Jawaharlal GD Birla’s home in Malabar Hill, Nehru and where they were staying Gandhi at Gowalia Tank on August 8, 1942; Mani Bhavan, now a museum, April 1930: After Gandhi broke was once the the Salt law, and made salt in Dandi, a delegation led by KF home of Nariman broke the Salt law in Revashankar Haji Ali point. Middle class folk Jhaveri, who boiled salt water from hosted Gandhi Chowpatty beach on their on many terraces, in defiance of the law occasions. ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; NATIONAL GANDHI MUSEUM; AALOK SONI/HT Gandhi collected June 26, 1921: Rs 500,000 at one meeting in n Mahatma Gandhi at Juhu Beach, Bombay, May 1944 ALAMY STOCK PHOTO central Mumbai for the Tilak After attending a fund (his target was Rs 1 crore), July 31, 1921: Rachel Lopez a letter to his relative, Maganlal. The Bom- intended for the Non meeting of the Congress n [email protected] bay Chronicle published at the time Cooperation movement. Working Committee and Donations were offered by described the scene: “...the press of people opening a Khadi exhibition by o most historians, the Mahatma can was so great that it was with difficulty that individuals, guilds and trade the National Women’s bodies Association, Gandhi and many come across as a man whose heart they reached their motor car and by the time Swadeshi followers inaugurated T lay in rural India and who cared little they did so they were almost hidden by gar- a nationwide campaign lighting for the privileged few in the cities. lands.” Gandhi delivered his first speech the a bonfire of foreign cloth in And yet, MK Gandhi spent several years in very next day at Hira Baug hall in Girgaum. Bombay Mumbai — or Bombay as the city was then Over the following week, receptions were called — first as a potential barrister, then as held for him at JB Petit’s bungalow on Pedder a lawyer with an established practice, and Road (possibly where the Vama store now finally, over three decades, as the man who stands) and at Mangaldas House off Laming- led India to freedom. ton Road (the site of Imperial Cinema). In PERSPECTIVE USHA THAKKAR & SANDHYA MEHTA From Mani Bhavan, the modest two-sto- attendance were Bhalchandra Krishna, BG rey home of his friend, Revashankar Jhaveri, Horniman, Revashanker Jhaveri, Moham- on the leafy Laburnum Road, Gandhi spear- med Ali Jinnah, Pherozeshah Mehta and headed at least six national movements. Dorab Tata. “This is no accident,” says historian, San- Gandhi held many meetings across Bom- dhya Mehta, who co-authored the 2016 book, bay over the years. At what is now the Gandhi in Bombay: Towards Swaraj with Empire and Excelsior cinemas, he demanded Usha Thakkar. “Bombay was the fund-rais- the abolition of indentured labour. At the A WINNING ing centre. It’s the middle-class cloth mer- Seth Morarji Gokuldas Hall near Gaiwadi, he The association of this extraordinary leader and this chants from Mulji Jetha market, not rich mill stirred up ideas of tyag, seva, prem and extraordinary city presents owners, who contributed to his causes.” bhakti (sacrifice, service, compassion and Bombay was where Gandhi made public devotion) among women of the Bhagini an impressive saga of speeches at mill compounds, where the sup- Samaj. He’d meet “untouchable” castes in satyagraha and Swadeshi porters included elite families, shopkeepers, Walpakhadi, near Dongri. COMBINATION women and students. Fund-raising speeches When Gandhi started a 24-hour fast to kick often ended with women handing over their off the 1919 satyagraha opposing the Rowlatt jewellery. A third of the Rs 1 crore fund for Act, thousands — women, children, Hindus MAXIMUM CITY An indefatigable Gandhi. A generous Bombay was a witness to Gandhi as, not the Non Cooperation movement in 1921 was and Muslims — joined him in taking a ritual only a matchless leader, but also an excep- raised here. dip in the Chowpatty sea. Bombay. Together, they created a synergy that changed tional fund raiser. An announcement by Gan- However, perhaps no single act binds Gan- dhi to collect Rs 1 crore by the end of June 1921 EARLY DAYS dhi to the city as closely as the events of July the course of history, for it is here that the first nationwide for the Tilak Swaraj Fund stimulated people to In 1891, a 21-year-old Gandhi who had 1921 in the Elphinstone mill compound in contribute for nationalistic activities. Bom- recently studied the law in London, reached Parel. “Swaraj is impossible without Swade- Non Cooperation, and Quit India movements were launched bay was the single largest contributor. Bombay, hoping to set up a practice. The city shi,” declared Gandhi, honouring Lokmanya Overwhelmed by the generosity of the peo- was smaller then, its population just over Tilak as spectacular bonfires of foreign-made ple of Bombay, Gandhi said, “Bombay is beau- 800,000, its edges stretching until Bandra. It saris, shirts and jackets were first lit. History tiful, not for the big buildings, for most of them wasn’t a stellar start. At his début at the records more than 10,000 attendees. This hide the squalid poverty and dirt, not for the Small Causes Court in Marine Lines, he was event sparked bonfires across India as people wealth, for most of it is derived from the blood expected to cross examine a witness. “I stood began to reject foreign goods. of the masses, but for its world renowned gen- up, but my heart sank into my boots,” he Bombay was where religious unity was erosity.” wrote in his autobiography, The Story of My not only a possibility, it was celebrated. Later the city also contributed generously Experiments with Truth. Overcome by stage When Gandhi formally opened Congress lthough Mohandas Karam- ernment institutions and propagated swade- to Gandhi’s call for the Harijan Fund in 1933-34 fright, he fled the courtroom, not fighting a House on Lamington Road in 1925, a maulvi, chand Gandhi never liked big shi. Gandhi had become an undisputed leader and the fund for Kasturba Memorial Trust, 10 case until he moved to South Africa in 1893. a Parsi, a Christian priest, a Sikh and a sana- cities, the city of Bombay (now of the non violent struggle in India. years later. Bombay had taken him as one of But Gandhi attended the Bombay High Court tanist offered prayers. As Gandhi marched to Mumbai) remained important For Gandhi, swadeshi was the way to attain its own. every day, walking 45 minutes to and from Dandi from Ahmedabad in 1930, Bombay A for him throughout his life. It swaraj, or self-rule. Bombay became an Gandhi had immense faith in the abilities of his home in Girgaum. In court, he couldn’t locals joined in and boiled saltwater from was here that Gandhi found firm important site for the propagation of khadi women and this was validated time and again. follow the cases and would doze off, like sev- Chowpatty on their terraces.When he support for his activities with a large number work. The first Khadi Bhandar in the country The women, people from all sections, particu- eral others. Six months in, he joined his launched the Quit India Movement from of his associates and followers assembled was opened by Gandhi in January 1920 in Mor- larly merchants and the shopkeepers in Bom- brother in Porbunder to do petty legal work, Gowalia Tank Maidan in 1942, citizens around him. If Gandhi’s leadership was araji Gokuldas Market. bay, supported him in his movements and con- and eventually left to work for a trading firm turned Gandhi’s “Do Or Die” slogan into a appealing, the city’s response was spectacu- To emphasise the boycott of foreign cloth, structive activities. People in Bombay were in South Africa. revolution. lar. Gandhi’s important nationwide move- three bonfires were organised in the city at active in locations stretching from the centre A decade later, when Gandhi returned to ments are intertwined with the life of this city Elphinstone Mills Compound in Parel on July to the suburbs, from residential areas like n Rajasekar India and moved to Bombay after a month in TO THE LAST and its people. Gandhi was full of energy and 31, October 9 and November 17, in 1921. Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Vile Parle to busi- Ramamani, a Calcutta, he stayed longer and prospered.